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At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

Optimized methodology for sequential extraction of RNA and protein from small human skin biopsies.

Current translational human studies are moving in the direction of concurrent genomic and proteomic analysis using small clinical samples. Skin tissue, although easily accessible, is difficult to process owing to its natural resistance to mechanical shearing and high levels of RNases and proteases. Currently, these complications result in degraded RNA samples with variable yield. We have developed a method of sequential extraction of high quality RNA and protein from a single 3 mm full thickness skin punch biopsy. This method yields 1-2 microg of RNA and 150 microg of protein, which is usable in many sensitive downstream applications including microarray, quantitative real-time PCR, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and Western blot analysis.

Biochemistry↗

Optimization of RNA isolation from the archaebacterium Methanosarcina barkeri and validation for oligonucleotide microarray analysis.

The recent completion of a draft genome sequence for Methanosarcina barkeri has allowed the application of various high throughput post-genomics technologies, such as nucleic acid microarrays and mass spectrometry of proteins to detect global changes in transcription and translation that occur in response to experimental treatments. However, due to the production of a thick heteropolysaccharide outer layer, M. barkeri usually grows in large aggregates of cells rather than as individual, planktonic cells. Complete disruption of these aggregates and lysis of the released cells presents technical difficulties in ensuring the isolation of intact RNA from the entire population of cells. Initial attempts at isolating RNA from M. barkeri using several standard extraction protocols gave incomplete lysis of cells and resulted in low yields of poor quality RNA. In this study, we tested several chemical and mechanical disruption modifications of standard RNA extraction methods to optimize the extraction efficiency and minimize the number of unlysed cells remaining after extraction. As a further test of the quality of the resulting RNAs, their performance in replicate microarray analyses were determined. The results showed that inclusion of a liquid nitrogen grinding step prior to Trizol extraction, combined with moderate bead beating, yielded the most complete cell lysis, the highest yield of RNA and the most reproducible microarray results for M. barkeri. From these results it is clear that the methods used to isolate RNA can have a significant impact on the variability, trend and, presumably, the accuracy of microarray data. In addition, functional analysis of the microarray results obtained with RNA from the optimized protocol showed that, as expected, the genes involved in methanogenesis were among the most highly expressed genes in M. barkeri.

Gene Expression↗

Methods for RNA extraction, cDNA preparation and analysis of CFTR transcripts.

The scope of this article is to outline some of the basic methods for good quality RNA preparation from mammalian tissues and cells (including epithelial cells). Additionally, we give an outline of common techniques of measuring CFTR gene expression such as quantitative and semi-quantitative reverse transcription (RT) PCR and ribonuclease protection assay (RPA). These methods are designed to detect low abundance transcripts, which apply to CFTR mRNA in most cell types and tissues.

Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulato↗

Histological staining methods preparatory to laser capture microdissection significantly affect the integrity of the cellular RNA.

BACKGROUND: Gene expression profiling by microarray analysis of cells enriched by laser capture microdissection (LCM) faces several technical challenges. Frozen sections yield higher quality RNA than paraffin-imbedded sections, but even with frozen sections, the staining methods used for histological identification of cells of interest could still damage the mRNA in the cells. To study the contribution of staining methods to degradation of results from gene expression profiling of LCM samples, we subjected pellets of the mouse plasma cell tumor cell line TEPC 1165 to direct RNA extraction and to parallel frozen sectioning for LCM and subsequent RNA extraction. We used microarray hybridization analysis to compare gene expression profiles of RNA from cell pellets with gene expression profiles of RNA from frozen sections that had been stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), Nissl Stain (NS), and for immunofluorescence (IF) as well as with the plasma cell-revealing methyl green pyronin (MGP) stain. All RNAs were amplified with two rounds of T7-based in vitro transcription and analyzed by two-color expression analysis on 10-K cDNA microarrays. RESULTS: The MGP-stained samples showed the least introduction of mRNA loss, followed by H&E and immunofluorescence. Nissl staining was significantly more detrimental to gene expression profiles, presumably owing to an aqueous step in which RNA may have been damaged by endogenous or exogenous RNAases. CONCLUSION: RNA damage can occur during the staining steps preparatory to laser capture microdissection, with the consequence of loss of representation of certain genes in microarray hybridization analysis. Inclusion of RNAase inhibitor in aqueous staining solutions appears to be important in protecting RNA from loss of gene transcripts.

Animals↗

Detection of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase messenger RNA using a peptide nucleic acid probe in paraffin-embedded archival specimens.

Although the human genome project has been completed, the functions of many genes remain undetermined. In situ hybridization (ISH) is a key method for identifying cells in which a given messenger RNA is transcribed. Paraffin-embedded specimens remain precious materials for research, but preservation of high-quality RNA in these specimens is not expected unless ample caution was taken during fixation. Peptide nucleic acid (PNA) is a recently developed hybrid molecule with genetic information that has high stability and high affinity to the complementary DNA or RNA. We applied a PNA probe to mRNA ISH of liver specimens obtained by autopsy and embedded in paraffin 28-48 years ago. An 18-mer PNA probe for glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase was used. Staining was then analyzed in association with morphology by hematoxylin and eosin staining, and with the time between death of the patient and tissue fixation. Notably, specimens fixed with formalin and embedded in paraffin 48 years ago yielded excellent results if the time before fixation was short enough (<8 h). There was a significant inverse correlation between the intensity of ISH staining and the time before fixation. Oligonucleotide PNA probe, albeit at high cost, would increase the value of paraffin-embedded specimens in storage for use in human medical research.

Adult↗

Total RNA suitable for molecular biology analysis.

Development of methods based on determining expression of individual genes resulted in the need for large amounts of high quality RNA preparations. It is widely accepted that in intact rRNA the 28S and 18S band ratio must be 2:1. It is not quite clear what is the main cause of lower rRNA bands intensity ratio. It is difficult to isolate RNA with 2:1 28S/18S ratio from RNase-rich and some tumor tissues. At the same time this requirement may be excessive and RNA preparations with lower 28S/18S rRNA ratio may be quite adequate for most techniques of determining gene expression. As demonstrated in this study, the level of a particular RNA may be reliably determined by RT-PCR even in a total RNA that is usually considered as degraded (28S to 18S ratio as low as 0.4), provided that random primer is used in RT. In contrast, the use of the oligo(dT) primer in RT-PCR may lead to underestimation of specific mRNA level in the degraded RNA samples, depending on the distance of amplified fragment from the poly(A) end. A criterion based on average degradation level of a number of reference genes is suggested to discriminate specific RNA degradation from random and unspecific ones.

Animals↗

Comparison of regional variability in lung-specific gene expression using a novel method for RNA isolation from lung subcompartments of rats and mice.

The lung is composed of a complex assemblage of more than 40 different cell types. Therefore, investigative techniques that rely on samples derived from whole lung homogenates, whether for biochemical measurements of metabolism or the analysis of gene expression, are inherently insensitive to cell type or region-specific differences. Microdissection has previously been successful for defining region-specific metabolic activity in the lung. Tissues obtained by this technique exhibit good viability and permit reproducible enzyme activity measurements. In this paper, a technique for isolating RNA from lung subcompartments obtained by microdissection is described. The method is straight forward and results in high quality RNA that can be used to quantify specific mRNAs in microscopically selected lung subcompartments by complementary DNA or RNA hybridization techniques. This technique provides a significant increase in sensitivity over techniques based on whole lung homogenates because RNA contributed by relevant lung subcompartments is enriched. The high sensitivity of the method makes it feasible to compare differences in mRNA expression 1) within different regions of the lung in the same animal, 2) in the same region in different animals and between different species, and 3) between susceptible and nonsusceptible sites in conditions of focal lung injury.

Animals↗

Isolation and in vitro translation of mRNA from rat peritoneal mast cells and rat basophilic leukemia cells.

In the absence of any specific literature on the isolation of RNA from mast cells, our initial attempts established that unusual measures would be needed to prepare acceptable yields of high quality RNA from peritoneal mast cells of normal adult rats. Accordingly, we developed procedures for the isolation and characterization of RNA from rat peritoneal mast cells (PMC) and basophilic leukemia cells (RBL). The significant components of the procedures include: separation and removal of mast cell granules to minimize contamination of RNA with proteins and proteoglycans; use of bentonite in phenol extractions; and repetition of extractions and precipitation. The amounts of total RNA extracted from PMC were about 15% of those from RBL, although the percentage mRNA of total RNA in PMC and RBL was similar (1.8 and 2.0%). Ribosomal RNA banding patterns in agarose gel electrophoresis and in vitro translation experiments indicate that the isolated RNA can be employed for analysis of molecular mechanisms of mast cell function and heterogeneity.

Animals↗

Optimized beadmilling of tissues for high-throughput RNA production and microarray-based analyses.

The preparation of RNA samples has become the rate-limiting step when performing genome-scale analyses by DNA microarrays. Methods to improve throughput of RNA isolation from tissues are needed. The effects of bead size and composition for disrupting mouse tissues have been evaluated in small centrifuge tubes and optimized for RNA production. The resulting process is inexpensive, resistant to cross-contamination, and amenable to robotic processing. After optimization, very-high-quality RNA can be produced. Comparisons between RNAs isolated by beadmilling (followed by solid-phase purification) and those by conventional isolation processes show that RNA produced by beadmilling is suitable for microarray analyses. Parallel implementation of beadmilling will enable a high-throughput tissue-to-RNA processing system for large-scale microarray analyses.

Animals↗

Effects of globin mRNA reduction methods on gene expression profiles from whole blood.

Excessive globin mRNA in whole blood RNA decreases transcript detection sensitivity and increases signal variation on microarrays. Hence, methods based on peptide nucleic acid inhibitory oligos and biotinylated DNA capture oligos have been developed to reduce globin mRNA. However, there is limited information about the effects of these two methods on gene expression profiles. Thus, we systematically compared the facility and effects of the two globin reduction methods on profile measurements from Jurkat cell line RNA with or without spiked globin mRNA and human blood RNA isolated using PAXgene collection tubes. We showed that the methods were efficient at increasing the sensitivity of transcript detection without loss of specificity, but neither method could recover a profile equivalent to that of an identical RNA sample without globin mRNA excesses. The capture oligo method had slightly better transcript detection sensitivity for cell line RNA, lowered signal variation for PAXgene RNA, and more similar profiles to controls than the inhibitory method. However, the capture method required larger amounts of initial high-quality RNA to yield sufficient cRNA amounts, and its procedures were more complex and time consuming than the inhibitory method. These results inform the selection of methods suitable for multicenter surveillance of gene expression profiles.

Blood Specimen Collection↗

Conventional 3' end formation is not required for NMD substrate recognition in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

The recognition and rapid degradation of mRNAs with premature translation termination codons by the nonsense-mediated pathway of mRNA decay is an important RNA quality control system in eukaryotes. In mammals, the efficient recognition of these mRNAs is dependent upon exon junction complex proteins deposited on the RNA during pre-mRNA splicing. In yeast, splicing does not play a role in recognition of mRNAs that terminate translation prematurely, raising the possibility that proteins deposited during alternative pre-mRNA processing events such as 3' end formation might contribute to the distinction between normal and premature translation termination. We have utilized mRNAs with a 3' poly(A) tail generated by ribozyme cleavage to demonstrate that the normal process of 3' end cleavage and polyadenylation is not required for mRNA stability or the detection of a premature stop codon. Thus, in yeast, the distinction between normal and premature translation termination events is independent of both splicing and conventional 3' end formation.

3' Untranslated Regions↗

An improved method for isolating RNA from porcine adipose tissue.

In the present study, we describe a method that we developed to isolate total RNA from porcine adipose tissue. This method entails homogenizing porcine adipose tissue in 10 ml of 4 M guanidium thiocyanate, 25 mM sodium citrate, 0.5% Sarcosyl, 0.1 M beta-mercaptoethanol, pH 7.0, and then performing two CHCl3 extractions to remove lipid before following the procedure described by P. Chomczynski and N. Sacchi (1987, Anal. Biochem. 162, 156-159). This modification improved the yield of RNA approximately threefold (yield was 88 +/- 7 micrograms total RNA/g of tissue) without affecting RNA quality.

Adipose Tissue↗

Cytoskeletal messenger RNA stability in human neocortex: studies in normal aging and in Alzheimer's disease.

Total RNA was extracted from human brain temporal and parietotemporal neocortical grey matter with postmortem intervals (PMI) of up to 13.5 hours. The integrity and rank abundance of heterogeneous nuclear RNA (HnRNA) and messenger RNA (mRNA) were analyzed by Northern gel dot blot hybridization with specific cloned probes of neurobiological interest: the RNA messages for four cytoskeletal components including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), alpha-tubulin, beta-actin and the human neurofilament light chain (HNF-L) genomic sequence, the Alu repetitive element, the scrapie prion PrP DNA probe and the chromatin condensing agent linker histone H1(0) genomic probe. Our observations indicate that for the cytoskeletal RNA messages studied here: (1) short postmortem intervals (of up to 4.5 hours) had only small effects upon RNA quality in these neocortices, (2) GFAP and HNF-L transcripts were represented at relatively high levels in the cerebral neocortex and (3) each RNA species in normal human brain had both unique and characteristic intracellular levels of abundance and decay kinetics. In the pathological condition, Alzheimer's disease (AD), cells of the temporal and parietotemporal neocortices of afflicted brains showed selective reductions in cytoskeletal RNA pool size which are not attributable to RNA transcript stability.

Adult↗

New quick method for isolating RNA from laser captured cells stained by immunofluorescent immunohistochemistry; RNA suitable for direct use in fluorogenic TaqMan one-step real-time RT-PCR.

We describe a new approach for reliably isolating one-step real-time quantitative RT-PCR-quality RNA from laser captured cells retrieved from frozen sections previously subjected to immunofluorescent immunohistochemistry (IF-IHC) and subsequently subjected to fluorogenic one-step real-time RT-PCR analysis without the need for costly, time-consuming linear amplification. One cell's worth of RNA can now be interrogated with confidence. This approach represents an amalgam of technologies already offered commercially by Applied Biosystems, Arcturus and Invitrogen. It is the primary focus of this communication to expose the details and execution of an important new LCM RNA isolation technique, but also provide a detailed account of the IF-IHC procedure preceding RNA isolation, and provide information regarding our approach to fluorogenic one-step real-time RT-PCR in general. Experimental results shown here are meant to supplement the primary aim and are not intended to represent a complete scientific study. It is important to mention, that since LCM-RT-PCR is still far less expensive than micro-array analysis, we feel this approach to isolating RNA from LCM samples will be of continuing use to many researchers with limited budgets in the years ahead.

Journal Article↗

Extraction of total RNA from leaves of Eucalyptus and other woody and herbaceous plants using sodium isoascorbate.

Rapid extraction of total RNA from Eucalyptus leaves is difficult due to the high content of polyphenolics and polysaccharides. A rapid and simple method was developed by using an extraction buffer containing sodium isoascorbate at a concentration of 500 mM. This method consisted of one or two chloroform extractions, one acid guanidium-phenol-chloroform extraction, and isopropanol precipitation alone. The yields of the RNA fractions were 246-1750 micrograms/g fresh weight when leaves of Eucalyptus, five other woody plants, and four herbaceous plants were used as samples. The contamination of the RNA fractions by proteins and polysaccharides was very limited as judged spectrophotometrically. When the RNA fractions were subjected to agarose gel electrophoresis, intact rRNA bands were detected. The RNA fractions could be used for RT-PCR. These results indicate that our new method achieves a simple and rapid preparation of high-quality RNA from leaves of Eucalyptus and other plant species.

Ascorbic Acid↗

Modifications of the guanidine hydrochloride procedure for the extraction of RNA: isolation from a variety of tissues and adherent/nonadherent cell types.

In a previous report dealing with the guanidine hydrochloride protocol for the extraction of RNA from mouse peritoneal macrophages, we identified a major source of RNA-degrading activity and showed that its removal early in the extraction procedure resulted in a more dependable method for the recovery of high-quality RNA. This report extends these findings and demonstrates the general applicability of the technique to a variety of fresh or frozen adherent cell types, cell suspensions and tissues, further highlighting stages at which degradation is most likely to occur and how to avoid a variety of pitfalls associated with the extraction procedure.

Animals↗

Robust gene expression with amplified RNA from biopsy-sized human heart tissue.

The need to assess heart failure at an early stage highlights the importance of accurate microarray analysis using small tissue samples. To test our ability to obtain high quality RNA from biopsy-sized cardiac specimens, amplification was performed on RNA from biopsy-sized samples of left ventricle (LV) tissue from one explanted failing human heart and one non-failing heart. Two methods were used: one-cycle (1C) amplification of 1.6 microg of RNA, and two-cycle (2C) amplification of 50 ng of RNA. The resulting cRNA was hybridized to Affymetrix GeneChip arrays. Over 65% of all differentially expressed genes for failing vs non-failing hearts were concordant between 1C and 2C RNA amplification. Differentially expressed genes between 1C and 2C RNA amplification in our study were highly correlated (R(2) = 0.957 and changes in gene expression agreed with prior studies on genes and heart failure; e.g., decreased alpha-myosin heavy chain and alpha-tropomyosin, as well as increased expression of insulin-like growth factor). Two cycles of amplification from cardiac biopsies will permit accurate transcription profiling of heart failure at pre-symptomatic stages. Ability to measure gene expression from nanogram amounts of RNA will provide new opportunities to predict progression to symptomatic heart failure, and to identify potential targets for therapy.

Biopsy↗

Rapid RNA isolation without the use of commercial kits: application to small tissue samples.

We describe an adapted version of the Chomczynski and Sacchi [Anal Biochem (1987) 162:156-159] RNA isolation procedure that can be performed in less than 1 h on small (<15 mg) tissue samples, using commonly available reagents. Our modifications included: (1) one rather than two precipitation steps in the aqueous phase with 99% ethanol and (2) elimination of the 1-h incubation step at -20 degrees C. Our adaptations resulted in RNA yield (microg/mg of tissue) and purity (260/280 nm ratios) comparable to those of the original procedure. Furthermore, the isolated RNA was successfully utilized in reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assays, suggesting that it was essentially free of carry-over contaminants that could inhibit enzymatic reactions. When tested on tissue sample sizes of 7-12 mg, our adapted procedure allowed the recovery of enough total RNA for use in techniques such as Northern blot analysis. Our modified technique is therefore an inexpensive alternative to commercially available kits when isolating good-quality RNA from very small tissue samples, such as those obtained from needle biopsies.

Animals↗